The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said it may take two months to rehabilitate the entire Metro Manila following the devastation caused by tropical storm "Ondoy" over the weekend.

This as President Arroyo assured the public that there will be steady food supply and that gasoline, liquefied petroleum gas and similar products will be available under “normal terms,” as she warned against hoarders and price manipulators.

MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando, who visited his native Marikina City which was hardest hit in Metro Manila, said more than 500 members of the MMDA rescue team and sidewalk clearing group were deployed to the city and other areas in nearby Pasig City and other affected communities.

locations to rescue stranded individuals while others clear the roads of mud, debris, fallen trees, garbage and other obstructions.

“I have directed the teams to start the clearing operations along the road towards Riverbanks as this is the main thoroughfare going to Marikina," said Fernando.

All MMDA heavy equipments, including dump trucks, were dispatched to affected areas to tow stalled vehicles while employees work on extended hours to respond to emergency calls.

Fernando appealed to residents in the entire metropolis to voluntarily clean their surroundings.

He said 70 percent of Marikina City was submerged to floodwaters that prompted the residents to go up their rooftops for safety.

Meanwhile, the Unified Vehicle Volume Reduction program or number coding has been suspended for one week or until Friday to provide private vehicle owners opportunities to help in the rescue and distribution of relief to affected families.

The agency also set up collection points along EDSA to accept donations, food, clothes and other basic items for the flood victims.

Meanwhile, President Arroyo directed the use of the Malacañang grounds to serve as emergency center for relief operations.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde and deputy presidential spokeswoman Lorelei Fajardo said that Mrs. Arroyo issued the directive to centralize relief efforts by various government agencies.

Remonde said members of the First family are willing to temporarily leave Malacañang should there be a need to expand relief operations in the Palace grounds.

“The President has allowed the use of Malacañang itself, her own home, to be a center of relief operations,” he said.

In an interview over the government-run DzRB, Fajardo said Malacañang’s Heroes Hall will serve as the center for relief operations.

She said the President has tasked Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and Hermogenes Esperon Jr., chief of the Presidential Management Staff, to supervise the relief center.

Fajardo said the Overseas Welfare Workers Administration (OWWA) will set up phone booths in the Palace grounds so that overseas Filipino workers would have lines to contact family members affected by the tropical storm.

The President, who went to her flood-stricken hometown of Lubao, Pampanga to distribute relief items, likewise ordered the Department of Trade and Industry to keep an eye on the stability of food supply in the market and the Department of Energy to ensure the availability of the petroleum products.

“There will be zero tolerance as usual for hoarding and price manipulation.

Local government officials are enjoined to assist and support the local offices of national agencies concerned to prevent such criminal activity by identifying and apprehending the responsible parties,” Mrs. Arroyo said in a statement Sunday night.

“As part of this assistance, I am directing the DTI to ensure a steady supply of foodstuff and other essentials at reasonable prices to consumers.

Likewise DOE is directed to secure the availability of gasoline, LPG and similar products under normal terms,” she ordered.

The President was supposed to proceed to Marilao, Bulacan, but because of the waist-high flood, she postponed the visit to the town’s two barangays, Poblacion and Abangan Sur.